Diamond in metasedimentary crustal rocks from Pohorje,Eastern Alps: a window to deep continental subduction

We report the first finding of diamond and moissanite in metasedimentary crustal rocks of Pohorje Mountains (Slovenia) in the Austroalpine ultrahigh‐pressure (UHP) metamorphic terrane of the Eastern Alps. Microscopic observations and Raman spectroscopy show that diamond occurs in situ as inclusions in garnet, being heterogeneously distributed. Under the optical microscope, diamond‐bearing inclusions are of cuboidal to rounded shape and of pinkish, yellow to brownish colour. The Raman spectra of the investigated diamond show a sharp, first order peak of sp³‐bonded carbon, in most cases centred between 1332 and 1330 cm^?1, with a full width at half maximum between 3 and 5 cm^?1. Several spectra show Raman bands typical for disordered graphitic (sp²‐bonded) carbon. Detailed observations show that diamond occurs either as a monomineralic, single‐crystal inclusion or it is associated with SiC (moissanite), CO₂ and CH₄ in polyphase inclusions_. This rare record of diamond occurring with moissanite as fluid‐inclusion daughter minerals implies the crystallization of diamond and moissanite from a supercritical fluid at reducing conditions. Thermodynamic modelling suggests that diamond‐bearing gneisses attained P–T conditions of ≥3.5 GPa and 800–850 °C, similar to eclogites and garnet peridotites. We argue that diamond formed when carbonaceous sediment underwent UHP metamorphism at mantle depth exceeding 100 km during continental subduction in the Late Cretaceous (c. 95–92 Ma). The finding of diamond confirms UHP metamorphism in the Pohorje Mountains, the most deeply subducted part of Austroalpine units.     

A new magnitude category disaggregation approach for temporal high‐resolution rainfall intensities

Simulation of quick runoff components such as surface runoff and associated soil erosion requires temporal high‐resolution rainfall intensities. However, these data are often not available because such measurements are costly and time consuming. Current rainfall disaggregation methods have shortcomings, especially in generating the distribution of storm events. The objectives of this study were to improve point rainfall disaggregation using a new magnitude category rainfall disaggregation approach. The procedure is introduced using a coupled disaggregation approach (Hyetos and cascade) for multisite rainfall disaggregation. The new procedure was tested with ten long‐term precipitation data sets of central Germany using summer and winter precipitation to determine seasonal variability. Results showed that dividing the rainfall amount into four daily rainfall magnitude categories (1–10, 11–25, 26–50, >50 mm) improves the simulation of high rainfall intensity (convective rainfall). The Hyetos model category approach (Hyetos_Cat) with seasonal variation performs representative to observed hourly rainfall compared with without categories on each month. The mean absolute percentage accuracy of standard deviation for hourly rainfall is 89.7% in winter and 95.6% in summer. The proposed magnitude category method applied with the coupled Hyetos_Cat–cascade approach reproduces successfully the statistical behaviour of local 10‐min rainfall intensities in terms of intermittency as well as variability. The root mean square error performance statistics for disaggregated 10‐min rainfall depth ranges from 0.20 to 2.38 mm for summer and from 0.12 to 2.82 mm for the winter season in all categories. The coupled stochastic approach preserves the statistical self‐similarity and intermittency at each magnitude category with a relatively low computational burden. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of bed surface roughness on longitudinal dispersion in artificial open channels

In several empirical and modelling studies on river hydraulics, dispersion was negatively correlated to surface roughness. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the influence of surface roughness on longitudinal dispersion under controlled conditions. In artificial flow channels with a length of 104 m, tracer experiments with variations in channel bed material were performed. By use of measured tracer breakthrough curves, average flow velocity, mean longitudinal dispersion, and mean longitudinal dispersivity were calculated. Longitudinal dispersion coefficients ranged from 0·018 m² s^?1 in channels with smooth bed surface up to 0·209 m² s^?1 in channels with coarse gravel as bed material. Longitudinal dispersion was linearly related to mean flow velocity. Accordingly, longitudinal dispersivities ranged between 0·152 ± 0·017 m in channels with smooth bed surface and 0·584 ± 0·015 m in identical channels with a coarse gravel substrate. Grain size and surface roughness of the channel bed were found to correlate positively to longitudinal dispersion. This finding contradicts several existing relations between surface roughness and dispersion. Future studies should include further variation in surface roughness to derive a better‐founded empirical equation forecasting longitudinal dispersion from surface roughness. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tropical precipitation anomalies and d‐excess evolution during El Niño 2014‐16

The last 2014‐16 El Niño event was among the three strongest episodes on record. El Niño considerably changes annual and seasonal precipitation across the tropics. Here, we present a unique stable isotope data set of daily precipitation collected in Costa Rica prior to, during, and after El Niño 2014‐16, in combination with Lagrangian moisture source and precipitation anomaly diagnostics. δ²H composition ranged from ‐129.4 to +18.1 (‰) while δ¹⁸O ranged from ‐17.3 to +1.0 (‰). No significant difference was observed among δ¹⁸O (P=0.186) and δ²H (P=0.664) mean annual compositions. However, mean annual d‐excess showed a significant decreasing trend (from +13.3 to +8.7 ‰) (P<0.001) with values ranging from +26.6 to ‐13.9 ‰ prior to and during the El Niño evolution. The latter decrease in d‐excess can be partly explained by an enhanced moisture flux convergence across the southeastern Caribbean Sea coupled with moisture transport from northern South America by means of an increased Caribbean Low Level Jet regime. During 2014‐15, precipitation deficit across the Pacific domain averaged 46% resulting in a very severe drought; while a 94% precipitation surplus was observed in the Caribbean domain. Understanding these regional moisture transport mechanisms during a strong El Niño event may contribute to a) better understanding of precipitation anomalies in the tropics and b) re‐evaluate past stable isotope interpretations of ENSO events in paleoclimatic archives within the Central America region.     

Study of horizontal drain effect on slope stability

Slope failure usually occurs when soil particles are unable to build a strong bond with each other and become loose because of the presence of water. Water pressure weakens the ties between the particles and they tend to slip. Therefore, this study focused on the use of horizontal drains to reduce water entry and control the ground water level as a method of slope stabilization. Several previous studies have shown that the use of horizontal drains to lower the water level in soil is one of the fastest and cheapest slope stabilization methods. The main objective of this study is to analyze the effect of horizontal drains on slope stability. Information on slope condition during the landslides which happened at Precinct 9, Putrajaya, Malaysia was used for analytical simulation. Seep/W and Slope/W analyses were carried out with GeoStudio version 2007 software. Slopes with and without horizontal drains were then compared in terms of groundwater level and factor of safety (FOS) values. Scenarios were created for seven types of soil namely: residual, clay, silt, loam, sandy loam, sandy clay loam, and silt clay loam for a case wise analysis. The effect of daily steady rainfall and realcondition rainfall was studied. These cases were studied to find the effectiveness of horizontal drains as a slope stabilization tool. The results revealed that when a drain was installed on a slope, the groundwater level dropped immediately and the safety factor of the slope increased. Sandy loam (sL) soil was identified as the best candidate for a horizontal drain. Its highly saturated hydraulic conductivity Ks facilitated groundwater drain through the horizontal drain effectively. Silt clay loam (scL) soil was identified as the least effective candidate.     

Moving boulders in flash floods and estimating flow conditions using boulders in ancient deposits

Boulders moving in flash floods cause considerable damage and casualties. More and bigger boulders move in flash floods than predicted from published theory. The interpretation of flow conditions from the size of large particles within flash flood deposits has, until now, generally assumed that the velocity (or discharge) is unchanging in time (i.e. flow is steady), or changes instantaneously between periods of constant conditions. Standard practice is to apply theories developed for steady flow conditions to flash floods, which are however inherently very unsteady flows. This is likely to lead to overestimates of peak flow velocity (or discharge). Flash floods are characterised by extremely rapid variations in flow that generate significant transient forces in addition to the mean‐flow drag. These transient forces, generated by rapid velocity changes, are generally ignored in published theories, but they are briefly so large that they could initiate the motion of boulders. This paper develops a theory for the initiation of boulder movement due to the additional impulsive force generated by unsteady flow, and discusses the implications.     

Precipitation variability assessment of northeast China: Songhua River basin

Variability in precipitation is critical for the management of water resources. In this study, the research entropy base concept was applied to investigate spatial and temporal variability of the precipitation during 1964–2013 in the Songhua River basin of Heilongjiang Province in China. Sample entropy was applied on precipitation data on a monthly, seasonally, annually, decade scale and the number of rainy days for each selected station. Intensity entropy and apportionment entropy were used to calculate the variability over individual year and decade, respectively. Subsequently, Spearman’s Rho and Mann–Kendall tests were applied to observe for trends in the precipitation time series. The statistics of sample disorder index showed that the precipitation during February (mean 1.09, max. 1.26 and min. 0.80), April (mean 1.12, max. 1.29 and min. 0.99) and July (mean 1.10, max. 1.20 and min. 0.98) contributed significantly higher than those of other months. Overall, the contribution of the winter season was considerably high with a standard deviation of 0.10. The precipitation variability on decade basis was observed to increase from decade 1964–1973 and 1994–2003 with a mean value of decadal apportionment disorder index 0.023 and 0.053, respectively. In addition, the Mann–Kendall test value (1.90) showed a significant positive trend only at the Shangzhi station.